Meet Sheila Mowat, East St. Paul's new CAO

Sheila Mowat has spent 18 years in management in both the private and public sectors and her wide range of experiences has prepared her well for her return to municipal government.

Mowat took over the role of Chief Administrative Officer for East St. Paul on January 2, 2018.

"I started in the municipal field and kind of worked my way up," Mowat said.

"I started in joint offices, before amalgamation came into play, so you actually had two separate municipalities that shared office space and staff."

Originally from Treherne, she was an Assistant Administrative Officer first and then Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) in the joint offices of the RMs of South Norfolk and Treherne. She was also the CAO in a joint office for the Town of Neepawa and the RM of Langford.

Next up for Mowat was a position with the Manitoba Cattle Producers (MCP). She said there were plenty of learning opportunities and though it was similar in some ways to working with municipalities - there was an elected board - she said her work took her all over the province, she learned about international trade and she gained valuable lobbying experience.

"The main asset there was the lobbying, dealing with government, how you approach government and how you lobby for programs," she said.

Her time with MCP coincided with the Post BSE crisis, and she worked with cattle producers who were struggling to survive. She also worked with producers affected by flooding.

In the private sector, she worked for Q Collaborations as a flood evaluator and was once again dealing with municipalities.

She also spent some time in Alberta during the 2013 flooding and said she witnessed tremendous loss.

Mowat said she met extremely wealthy people who'd lost million dollar homes along the river, middle class people who'd also lost their homes and people who were suicidal from the stress of the situation.

"At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you have a $10 million house or a $500,000 house, it's still your home and you still have your story," Mowat said.

"The bottom line for everyone was, this is our home and we've lost everything."

She said she gained a tremendous understanding of how to work with people, and she's carried it with her to this day.

She also worked as a strategic account specialist for Element Fleet Management, providing services across the total fleet lifecycle before returning to municipal government, with Oakland Wawanesa.

Personally, Mowat grew up on a farm and spent some time in her adult life raising beef cattle.

She's a horse owner, a dog owner and enjoys country living.

"I grew up on a mixed farm, so animals have always been a part of my life," she said.

She has three grown children, and two grandchildren.

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